The online retailer, which reports second-quarter earnings on Thursday, has expanded far beyond its original purpose of selling books.

Since the mid-1990s, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has turned traditional retail on its head and forced the publishing industry to embrace ebooks and digital reading devices. But as it expands into devices and offers a more diverse range of products and services, it is disrupting traditional industries beyond publishing — grocery shopping, television and delivery, to name a few.

But not everything is guaranteed to change the status quo.

Amazon’s Fire smartphone goes on sale in the U.S. Friday but it remains to be seen whether Amazon can make inroads in a market long dominated by Samsung and Amazon. So far, it hasn’t worked in the tablet category. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX tablet has faltered next to the dominant iPad, despite being lighter and cheaper; the company’s tablet market share has shrunk from 7 per cent in 2012 to 2 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

That doesn’t seem to bother Bezos. Amazon makes investment decisions “in light of long-term market leadership considerations rather than short-term profitability . . . or short-term Wall Street reactions,” as Bezos put it in his annual letter to shareholders. The Seattle-based company is a leader in online advertising and collecting consumer data over the web, and Amazon has capitalized on that data by targeting products and services to customers based on previous purchases.

Here are five areas that could be ripe for Amazon-assisted disruption.

Groceries, diapers and sundries

Last year, Amazon.ca announced grocery delivery as part of its effort to expand market share in Canada. Amazon.ca, which launched in 2002, also operates a francophone boutique. This year, it introduced automatic re-orders on products customers use often, such as coffee, tissues and garbage bags, at savings of up to 15 per cent plus free shipping. And last month, Amazon.ca began targeting young families with a new Amazon Family discount diaper subscription service, a baby registry for expecting parents and an expanded online toy department. The result: Amazon ends up undercutting traditional grocery stores and retailers by offering products at a cheaper price with fast, free delivery.

At the same time, it hopes to hook young families, guaranteeing itself decades of business.

“The real significant factor here is Amazon has this tremendously sophisticated computer system that can track usage frequency and all the tangential products that are purchased along with diapers and everything else, so they would understand a person’s lifestyle and would be able to continue to make this type of offer throughout the growth of the child and family,” John C. Williams, senior partner at global retail adviser J.C. Williams Group, told The Star.

Delivery

A cornerstone of Amazon’s success has been two-day shipping, which comes with a subscription to the Amazon Prime service. But to compete with the instant gratification that comes with buying items from bricks-and-mortar stores, Amazon is trying deliver even more quickly. New “sortation centres” now allow for Sunday delivery in the U.S. and make cut-off times for two-day shipping even later.

But the innovation that has grabbed headlines: the possibility of delivery by drone. While there are still plenty of logistical and safety concerns, Amazon has applied for Federal Aviation Administration approval to expand testing of aerial vehicles that can travel over 80 kilometres per hour and carry loads of up to 2.25 kilograms. The ability to deliver packages by air in 30 minutes or less would take the postal system out of the equation.

Music streaming

The five-week-old Amazon Prime Music streaming service isn’t available in Canada but is getting favourable reviews in the U.S., where it is offered as a perk with Prime membership, which is $99 a month. (Canadians pay $79 but get fewer benefits.)

The unlimited, ad-free service competes with Spotify, Rdio and others.

On Wednesday, Amazon expanded its million-song catalogue, announcing hundreds of thousands of new songs and hundreds of new playlists. “The response we’ve had to Prime Music has far exceeded our expectations and we’re excited to make Prime Music even more valuable for Prime members,” said Steve Boom, VP of Digital Music for Amazon.

Television

In April, Amazon introduced FireTV, a $99 (U.S.) television-viewing device for streaming movies, television shows and other video from the web. The small black box, which is not yet available in Canada, comes with a remote control and connects to Wi-Fi. It puts Amazon in closer competition with Apple Inc. and Google Inc., both of which offer Internet-connected gadgets for streaming video to a TV. The move also escalates a rivalry with Netflix Inc. in video-streaming services. Like Netflix, Amazon has been developing programming to attract customers with exclusive content.

Fine art

Amazon expanded into the world of fine art sales last August and has since doubled its gallery partnerships to 300. “It’s a good opportunity to tap into our existing customer base,” Amazon spokesperson Erik Fairleigh told the Star last month.

Not to be outdone, Sotheby’s and eBay announced a deal this month to bring some of the famous auction house’s items to the online retailing website.

With files from Star staff and wire services

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